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4HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Einstein J. Biol. Med. (2004) 20:53-58. 53

The Department of Medicine at the Albert Einstein Collegeof Medicine, 1955-1980

Milford FulopDepartment of Medicine Albert Einstein College of MedicineBronx, New York 10461

After several years of planning, the new AlbertEinstein College of Medicine (AECOM) recruitedits first class, of just 56 students, and began their

instruction in the fall of 1955. This event took place in anot-yet-fully-outfitted Forchheimer building, which wasthen the only one of what later became a cluster ofAECOM buildings. Across the street was the BronxMunicipal Hospital Center (BMHC, now Jacobi MedicalCenter, JMC), which was the original (and, for years,only) teaching hospital of the College. The evolution ofthe Department of Medicine at this new College, from itsearly stages – with 56 medical students, a small out-standing young faculty, one science building and oneteaching hospital – to a world-renowned medicalresearch and educational institution, with over 800 med-ical and doctoral students, numerous post-doctoral fel-lows and trainees, a large outstanding faculty, fourmajor science buildings, and six major teaching hospitalaffiliates, is described.

AECOM’s Department of Medicine began its academicexistence in July 1955 when Irving London, the first chair-man (Figure 1), came to the new medical school fromColumbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeonswith several other young physician-scientists: CharlesFrank from Columbia University, I. Herbert Scheinbergalso from Columbia University, as well as Saul Korey fromCase Western Reserve University. Ernst Jaffé and VictorHerbert came as research fellows and Milford Fulopcame as Chief Resident of the Medical Service at BMHC.David Hamerman came as a junior faculty member in late1955 and Bracha Ramot and Irwin Arias as research fel-lows in 1956 (Figure 2). Drs. London, Korey, andScheinberg were joined in 1957 by the late Howard Ederand subsequently by Quentin Deming (1959). Theirvisionary planning along with the support and fund-rais-ing of Dean Marcus Kogel (previously New York City’sCommissioner of Health) created one of the premierDepartments of Medicine in the country at AECOM. Dr.Korey was joined in 1956 by the late Labe Scheinberg, in1957 by Robert Katzman, and in 1958 by Isabel Rapin, allfrom Columbia University. What originally began asMedicine’s Division of Neurology became a separate aca-demic department within a few years.

The early years were particularly exciting, with talented,vibrant, and mainly young faculty at the new College,and a modern new hospital (Jaffé, 1996; Fulop, 1997). Formore than a decade, the Department’s clinical activities

were based at BMHC, which served as the College’s uni-versity hospital. In the early years, several members ofthe Montefiore attending staff, notably Harold Rifkinand Abraham Jezer, joined the College’s voluntary facul-ty and made teaching rounds at BMHC (Fulop, 1997). Aninstitutional relationship with Montefiore was formal-ized in 1963, and strengthened in 1968, at which timethe College and Montefiore Hospital agreed to have co-equal academic Departments of Medicine and later inother clinical disciplines.

The College planned to develop another hospital whereits faculty could engage in private practice. To that end,the Hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine

FIGURE 1 Irving M. London, M.D., the founding Chairman ofthe Department of Medicine at AECOM, in 1955.


54 EJBM, Copyright © 2004

The Department of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1955-1980

(the “College Hospital,” later designated the Jack D.Weiler Hospital of the Albert Einstein College ofMedicine) opened in 1966 and, over the next severalyears, became an important additional site for studentand resident teaching. However, in the late 1960s, thishospital experienced financial difficulties, which ledAECOM to contract with Montefiore Medical Center torun the Weiler Hospital. Although the Weiler Hospital isstill owned by the College, Weiler Hospital functionallybecame an integral part of Montefiore Medical Center,reflecting the closer relation between the College andMontefiore.

Dr. London successfully chaired and developed theDepartment for 15 years, and moved to Boston in 1970,to plan, organize, and then run what became the also-very-successful Harvard-MIT (Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology) Program in Health Sciences and Technology.He was succeeded at AECOM for a few years by QuentinB. Deming (1969-1970) and then John I. Sandson (1970-1972) as Acting Chairmen. John Sandson later became anAssociate Dean at AECOM, and then moved to BostonUniversity’s School of Medicine as Dean in 1974. In 1968,as part of the institutional affiliation with Montefiore,David Hamerman became the Chairman of the newly

designated separate academic Department of Medicinethere, and continued in that role through 1979.Meanwhile, at the AECOM campus, Neal Bricker chairedthe Department from 1972-1975, and from 1975-1980Milford Fulop was the Acting Chairman. In 1976, Dr.Bricker moved to the University of Miami, and is now theExecutive Vice President for Research of NaturonPharmaceuticals in Claremont, California, and a Professorof Biomedical Science at University of California atRiverside.

THE EINSTEIN-MONTEFIORE MERGER

In 1980, the Departments of Medicine at AECOM andMontefiore were merged (the other clinical departmentswere also merged over the next several years). The chair-men of these combined clinical departments becameresponsible for the teaching, research, and clinical activ-ities at AECOM, Montefiore, and Jacobi, as well as pro-viding academic oversight of the departments at all ofAECOM’s other affiliated institutions, including Bronx-Lebanon and North Central Bronx Hospitals. In 1980,Louis Sherwood became the first Chairman of the unifiedDepartment of Medicine. He left in 1987 to work at

FIGURE 2 Department of Medicine house staff, fellows*, and faculty* in June 1956. From left to right, first row: Victor Herbert*,Ernst Jaffé*, Labe Scheinberg*, Charles Frank*, Milford Fulop, Irving London*, I.H. Scheinberg*, David Hamerman*, and BrachaRamot*. Second row: Mallory Stephens, Joseph Niemann, Constantine Gitsios, Herbert Vaughan, Jack Shapiro, Cecil Broderick, IrminSternlieb, Seymour Levitan, Norman Isaacs, Harvey Serating, Harold Adel, Myron Zinn, and Frido Kiefhaber.

The Einstein Journal of Biology and Medicine 55

4HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEThe Department of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1955-1980

Merck, and until recently was their Senior Vice Presidentof United States Medical and Scientific Affairs. JamesScheuer became Acting Chairman in 1987 and Chairmanin 1990. In June 1999, he relinquished the arduous admin-istrative responsibilities and returned to teaching andresearch, and Philip Lief was the Acting Chairman duringthe rest of 1999. John Hardin became Chairman inJanuary 2000, relinquished the role in 2002 to return toresearch and teaching, and was succeeded in late 2002by Victor L. Schuster.

PROGRAMS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE

Over the years, the Department of Medicine has devel-oped major programs in medical student, residency, andspecialty fellowship training; clinical care; and research.During Irving London’s chairmanship, faculty memberswith common subspecialty interests held specialty clinics,conferences, and rounds. In the beginning, there wereno formal specialty divisions, because Dr. London pre-ferred a more flexible departmental structure. Such divi-sions were organized later, during the tenure of Dr. NealBricker.

UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION

During the College’s early years, members of theDepartment planned and conducted courses inDiagnostic Methodology for the second year medical stu-dents (which included History Taking, Physical Diagnosis,and Clinical Pathology); a clinical clerkship in Medicinefor the third year medical students; a 16-week outpa-tient clerkship in Medicine and Pediatrics for the fourthyear medical students (run for the Department ofMedicine by Robert Shimm); and, in later years, what wasfirst an elective and then a required substitute internshipin Medicine for the fourth year medical students. In theearly 1970s, several members of the Department organ-ized a multi-specialty outpatient clerkship for fourth yearmedical students. However, student and then facultyinterest in this activity waned after a few years. At aboutthat time, the College undertook a major curriculumrevision which emphasized an organ-systems approachto teaching during preclinical years. With this reformula-tion, members of the Department became responsiblefor much of the teaching in cardiovascular, gastrointesti-nal, pulmonary, and renal physiology; for a new secondyear course in pathophysiology; and for endocrinology,hematology, and infectious diseases.

In the earliest years, all of the students’ clinical teachingtook place at Jacobi and Van Etten Hospitals (nowrenamed the Jacobi Ambulatory Care Pavilion). From thelate 1960s to the mid-1970s clerkship teaching was alsodone at Lincoln Hospital and during the mid-1960s atBronx-Lebanon Hospital. Beginning in the late 1960s,with the increase in the medical school class size from 96

to 120, and later to 176 students, clinical clerkships werealso started at Montefiore Hospital. Currently, studentstake Medicine clerkships at Jacobi, Weiler, Montefiore,Long Island Jewish, and Beth Israel Hospitals.

RESIDENCY (POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION)

The Department of Medicine at AECOM has also had amajor investment in the teaching and training of resi-dents in Internal Medicine. Until the Weiler Hospitalopened in 1966, all of the Department’s InternalMedicine residency training took place on the generalMedical Service at Jacobi Hospital and on the Chest andMetabolic Research Services in Van Etten Hospital.Medical students came from the top schools around thenation to be residents in the Einstein-Jacobi Medicineprogram and be trained at the new hospital and medicalschool with its exciting and enthusiastic young faculty.During the 1980s and 1990s, under the aegis of theCollege, the Department continued to be responsible forAECOM’s Internal Medicine program at Jacobi-Weilerand then also for the separate program at Montefioreand North Central Bronx (NCB) Hospitals. In 1998, withthe ending of Montefiore’s affiliations with NCB andJacobi Hospitals, these two Medicine residency programswere reorganized again. The East Campus (Jacobi-Weiler) program is now the responsibility of theDepartment’s faculty at Jacobi, and the AECOM chair-man is responsible only for the Montefiore-based pro-gram. However, Medicine residents from the Montefioreprogram now rotate to Jacobi and Weiler, instead of toNCB Hospital.

In the 1960s and 1970s, under the direction of MilfordFulop and David Hamerman (until he moved toMontefiore in 1968), and in the 1970s and 1980s ablyassisted by Harold Adel and then Saul Moroff, the resi-dency at Jacobi became one of the most highly regardedInternal Medicine training programs in the country.Many Jacobi residents went on to successful careers inteaching, practice, research, and medical administration,and many became directors of services and divisions atteaching and community hospitals (Table 1).

FELLOWSHIPS (SUBSPECIALTY TRAINING)

Fellowships were established in the traditional medicalsubspecialties early, and several division heads obtainedNational Institutes of Health (NIH) Training Grant sup-port to establish programs to train bench investigators.Among the most successful were those in Gastroenterol-ogy, Hematology, Infectious Diseases, and Nephrology.

The fellowship program in Gastroenterology and LiverDiseases, originally under the directorship of Irwin Arias(who had been one of the early fellows in Dr. London’slaboratory), assisted by Irmin Sternlieb (a former Jacobi




DEANS

John Sandson (1956) Former Dean at Boston University (deceased)

Paul J. Friedman (1959) Former Dean for Academic Affairs, University of California at San Diego

Paul Royce (1959) Former Dean at the University of Minnesota at Duluth

Aaron Lazare (1961) Former Chairman of Psychiatry, then Dean and now Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts

Walter Henry (1969) Former Dean, University of California at Irvine

Arnold Aberman (1969) Former Dean at the University of Toronto and former Chairman of their Department of Medicine

CHAIRS

Normal Ertel (1957) Medical Service of the Veterans Administration New Jersey Health System (East Orange and Lyons Veterans Administration Medical Centers)

Sheldon Wolff (1959) Former Chairman of Medicine at Tufts (deceased)

Ora Rosen (1960) Former Chairman of Molecular Pharmacology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (deceased)

Eric Pfeiffer (1960) Department of Psychiatry, University of South Florida

Stanley Cohen (1961) Former Chairman of Pathology at Hahnemann University and now Chairman at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey at Newark

Michael Alderman (1962) Former Chairman of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Paul (Pepper) Davis (1963) Former Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Albany Medical College

Sheldon Jacobson (1964) Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Robert Goldstein (1965) Medicine at the Uniformed Services University for Health Sciences

Ned Cassem (1967) Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital

Robert Lisak (1968) Neurology at Wayne State University School of Medicine

Michael Droller (1968) Urology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine

David Richman (1969) Neurology at University of California at Davis

William Frishman (1971) Medicine at New York Medical College

E. John Gallagher (1972) Emergency Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Daniel Hier (1973) Neurology at University of Illinois

Neil Nusbaum (1980) Medicine at University of Illinois at Rockford

DIVISION HEADS

Leslie Bernstein (1958) Former head of Gastroenterology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Mary Jane Jesse (1959) Former head of Pediatric Cardiology at University of Miami and then President of the American Heart Association (deceased)

Morris Reichlin (1959) Former head of Arthritis and Immunology at the University of Oklahoma

Neil Kaplowitz (1959) Gastointestinal-Liver Diseases at the University of Southern California

Simon Karpatkin (1960) Hematology at New York University

Norman Fleischer (1960) Endocrinology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Peter Barland (1961) Former head of Rheumatology at Montefiore Hospital

Barry Brenner (1962) Nephrology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

William McCormack (1963) Infectious Diseases at State University of New York at Brooklyn

Elias Kazam (1966) Ultrasound and Computed Body Tomography at Cornell

Gerald Pohost (1967) Cardiovascular Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

David Rosenstreich (1967) Allergy and Immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Geoffrey Herzig (1967) Former head of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Hematologic Oncology at State Univerity of New York at Buffalo

Thomas Berl (1968) Renal Diseases and Hypertension at University of Colorado

Neil Benowitz (1969) Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at University of California at San Francisco

Mark Donowitz (1970) Former head of Gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins Univeristy

George Kaysen (1972) Nephrology at University of California at Davis

Stephen Udem (1972) Former head of Infectious Diseases at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey at Newark

Marc Blackman (1972) Clinical Director and Chief of the Laboratory for Clinical Investigation at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Alan Fein (1973) Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at North Shore - Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Peter Rotwein (1975) Molecular Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University

Marc Ernstoff (1978) Hematology and Oncology at Dartmouth, Hitchcock Medical Center

Gerald Ridge (1979) Medicine at the Allen Pavilion of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center

TABLE 1 THE GRADUATES OF THE EINSTEIN-JACOBI RESIDENCY PROGRAM: Graduates went on to successfulcareers in practice, research, and teaching. The following is a partial list of the graduates who also have had majoradministrative roles at AECOM and other medical schools.

The Einstein Journal of Biology and Medicine 57


Johnson and Rotor syndromes. That work was laterextended by Jayanta and Namita Roy-Chowdhury, whofurther elucidated the enzyme reactions responsible forthe glucuronidation of bilirubin, and then turned theirattention to the possible correction of those and otherhereditary metabolic abnormalities of hepatic functionby transplantation. David Shafritz, the Director ofAECOM’s Liver Research Center, performed seminal stud-ies of hepatic protein synthesis and of viral hepatitis andhepatoma. Kiron Das, who went on to direct theGastrointestinal Division at the Robert Wood JohnsonSchool of Medicine in New Jersey, defined some of theimmunologic abnormalities in patients with inflammatorybowel disorders. In recent years, Douglas Simon, workingmainly at Jacobi, has studied enteric disorders in patientswith Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) andhas undertaken trials to attempt to treat the diarrhealdisorders.

In the area of Human Genetics, I. Herbert Scheinberg andIrmin Sternlieb conducted studies of copper metabolismand Wilson’s Disease, while also providing patientsafflicted with this previously uniformly fatal disease theremarkable benefits of therapy with penicillamine andother decopperizing agents. Working in their laboratory,Anatol Morell crystallized human ceruloplasmin and pro-vided the earliest insights into how sialated glycopro-teins were protected from catabolism, and how desiala-tion fostered the metabolic degradation of serum glyco-proteins.

In Hematology, Irving London’s laboratory, includingErnst Jaffé and Bert Lowy, assisted by Grace Vanderhoff,Gertie Neumann, and Halina Morell, conducted studieson the biosynthesis of hemoglobin and the metabolismof erythrocytes. One of the other early fellows in theLondon laboratory was Bracha Ramot, a visitor fromIsrael, who went on to become the “doyenne of Israelihematology.” Tim Hunt, a post-doctoral fellow in thatlaboratory in the late 1960s, went on to share a NobelPrize in 2001 for his studies of the cell cycle. HelenRanney developed a major laboratory and clinical centerto study hereditary disorders of hemoglobin, especiallysickle cell disease, and trained a series of research fellowsincluding Robert Bookchin and Ronald Nagel. Dr.Bookchin, with Paul Gallop (of Biochemistry, who latermoved to Harvard), reported one of the earliest studiesof hemoglobin A1c, and Drs. Ranney and Blumenfeld(also of Biochemistry) then described its abnormalities inpatients with diabetes. Dr. Bookchin and Dr. Nagel havemade major contributions to our understanding of thepathologic physiology of hemoglobinopathies and theirtreatment. Dr. Nagel now directs the HematologyDivision, an NIH-funded Sickle Cell Disease Center, andalso a research program aiming at gene therapy ofhemoglobinopathies, the last fittingly in collaborationwith Dr. London’s laboratory, which is now at MIT. PhilipAisen, an AECOM fellow from 1957 to 1958 in HerbScheinberg’s laboratory, has conducted long-term studies


resident and then fellow in I. Herbert Scheinberg’s labo-ratory), attracted outstanding research fellows, some ofwhom went on to distinguished research careers andpositions of leadership. After Dr. Arias moved to TuftsUniversity in 1984 to chair their Department ofPhysiology, Allan Wolkoff became the director of theresearch component of the Gastrointestinal-LiverDiseases Fellowship (Allan Wolkoff is himself a graduateof AECOM and of the Jacobi residency program). Theprogram in Hematology, directed first by Helen Ranney(who later became the first woman Chair of Medicine inthis country, at University of California at San Diego),then by Ernst Jaffé, and in recent years by Ronald Nagel,also trained a succession of productive fellows, many ofwhom were taught clinical and morphologic hematologyby Christine Lawrence at Jacobi. The tradition of research-intensive fellowships was continued by the training pro-gram in Infectious Diseases, directed first by BernardFields (who later moved to Harvard University), then byNeal Steigbigel at Montefiore, and now by ArturoCasadevall. The program in Nephrology was directed firstby Neal Bricker, followed by Quentin Deming, RichardHays, Detlef Schlondorff, and Victor Schuster.

FACULTY RESEARCH

Einstein’s Department of Medicine has a distinguishedresearch record with many notable accomplishmentsduring its first quarter-century. In Atherosclerosis andLipid Metabolism, Howard Eder and his collaborators,Paul Roheim and Lewis Gidez, made salient contributionsto our understanding of lipid metabolism, hyperlipidem-ic disorders, and the interplay of dietary, genetic, andother factors in those disorders. In Cardiology, the stud-ies of Drs. LeJemtel and Sonnenblick and their collabora-tors provided important insights into understanding thepathophysiology of chronic congestive failure and itstreatment.

In Endocrinology, Ora Rosen’s research elucidatedaspects of glucose metabolism and the role of proteinkinases. She and Norman Fleischer developed one of thecountry’s first NIH-funded Diabetes Research andTraining Centers, whose members have continued to pro-duce a stream of research on the role of insulin, proteinkinases, and glucose metabolism. One of Dr. Fleischer’searly faculty recruits was Harry Shamoon, a former resi-dent at Jacobi, who was the Einstein PrincipalInvestigator of the National Diabetes Control andComplications Trial (DCCT), which established that “tightcontrol” of glycemia mitigated the development ofmicrovascular and neuropathic complications in Type 1Diabetes.

In Gastroenterology, Irwin Arias, after his original delin-eation of the biochemical defect in Gilbert’s disease,went on to elucidate the pathophysiology of severalother types of hereditary jaundice, including Dubin-


4HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEThe Department of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1955-1980

of the biophysics of iron metabolism and transferrin.

In Nephrology, Richard Hays devoted his research efforts toclarifying our understanding of the mechanism of action ofvasopressin on water transport and established the pres-ence of water channels in the cell membrane. DetlefSchlondorff, now Professor of Medicine at the Universityof Munich, studied the role of prostaglandins andvasoregulatory hormones on renal glomerular function.

In Pulmonary Diseases, M. Henry Williams, who was oneof the College’s earliest faculty members, as a VisitingAssistant Professor of Physiology, was persuaded by Dr.London in 1959 to come here full time to run the ChestService at Van Etten Hospital. He and Chang Shim con-ducted studies of the pathophysiology and treatment ofvarious chronic pulmonary disorders, notably bronchialasthma. Also at Van Etten, Isidore Bobrowitz performedsome of the early studies using ethambutol to treat pul-monary tuberculosis.

In Rheumatology, David Hamerman, who subsequentlybecame the Chairman of the Department of Medicine atMontefiore, and later formed and directed theDepartment’s Division of Geriatrics, conducted studies ofthe metabolism of hyaluronate, and John Sandsonundertook immunologic studies in patients with various

connective tissue diseases, especially systemic lupus ery-thematosus.

LOOKING TO THE PRESENT

Between 1975 and 1979, discussions took place betweenleaders at AECOM and Montefiore with the intent todevelop a closer relation. These negotiations resulted inamalgamations of the clinical academic departmentsunder single chairmen and the establishment of affilia-tions with Beth Israel and Long Island Jewish MedicalCenters, while continuing those with Jacobi, Montefiore,and Bronx-Lebanon.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Irving M. London for reviewing an earlier versionof this article.

REFERENCES

Jaffé, E.R. (1996) The early history of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.Einstein Quart. J. Biol. Med. 13:22-36.

Fulop, M. (1997) A brief history of the Einstein - BMHC relationship: in theDepartment of Medicine. Einstein Quart. J. Biol. Med. 14:26-29.

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